At the end of a business day, or upon other predetermined time intervals, a business will assemble their monetary receipts, count the receipts, fill out a deposit slip and then will transfer the receipts and deposit slip to a bank. Upon reception of the receipts, a bank then divides the cash portion of the deposit from the checks (or other instruments), counts the receipts and provides a reconciliation between the amount that was reported on the deposit slip and the amount that was received by the bank. The bank then provides to the customer a credit to the account and a receipt acknowledging its reception of the customer deposit. In the event the amount that was received is consistent with the amount that was reported on the deposit slip, the entire deposit is credited to the respective account. If there is a discrepancy between the amount reported on the deposit slip and the amount received by the bank, the bank may credit the amount it has determined it has received and customer is contacted and advised that the reported amount on the deposit slip does not match the amount the bank received. The bank and customer will then reach a resolution with respect to the discrepancy
Because many of the steps involved in a conventional deposit process are manually performed, there are numerous instances where errors can be manifested in the transaction. For example, during the customer counting process, the amount of the currency may be incorrectly calculated. Even if the count is correct, the amount that is reported on the deposit slip may be incorrectly transcribed. Further, errors may arise in connection with the identification of the particular customer account that may lead to incorrect crediting of accounts. For example, if a customer incorrectly enters the account number, the bank may identify this initial error. However, because many customers may have similar names, the incorrect account may still be credited by bank personnel. Errors may arise due to miskeying of account information by bank personnel. Further, in the conventional process, the existence of the error may not be discovered until after significant time has elapsed.
In the conventional process, upon completion of the deposit slip, the deposit slip is then associated with the customer deposit that is transferred to suitable container such as a bag or parcel and the materials are then transported to a bank, secure lockbox or bank vault operation. In an alternative arrangement the materials may be delivered to a third party cash processor. In the event that the cash receipts are large, the transportation of the receipts may be accomplished by armored carrier. When a conventional deposit package is received by the bank, the bank then counts the deposit receipts, appropriately credits the depositor's account and provides a receipt acknowledging reception of the deposit.
In such conventional deposit operations, many of these functions are manually performed by the customer and bank employees and the transaction remains a labor-intensive process. Even in those circumstances where automated cash counting technology is used, there can be errors that arise in the transfer of the data from one record to another. Because many of the procedures require human intervention, existing practices present a number of opportunities for errors. Further, each procedure in the transaction that is manually performed commensurately increases labor costs and the total transaction time between the time a customer makes the deposit and the time that the customer is credited with the deposit. In circumstances where the cash receipts are large, such as receipts from parking at large events, gate receipts at events, concession receipts, arcade receipts and other cash intensive business such as casinos, racetracks, churches, large retail establishments, grocery stores, and special sale events, such as liquidation sales, any problems or delays with the deposit transaction are magnified. Further, whenever the cash deposit is large, the customer would like to receive credit for the deposit to its account as soon as the bank takes possession of the deposit.
Banks, savings and loans and credit unions are subject to numerous federal and state regulations that govern their operations. In addition to the government-mandated requirements of cash reserves, banks must also anticipate the amount and type of currency that will be required for expected transactions within a certain time-period. The quicker that a bank can credit deposits, the faster the capital is available to fund its operations. Cash that is quickly accounted for can also be counted against requisite cash reserves. In general, a bank wants to keep its cash reserves at low levels because the cash is not functioning as working capital when it is in ready cash reserve.
In connection with checks, banks are required to process, and clear checks within defined time-periods. A rapid identification of the checks drawn on the bank's own customers, local competing banks or banks from other regions of the country would increase the speed of the clearing process. The requirements for clearing checks depend on the region in which the payee bank is located and the payee on the check. For example, checks to business have different requirements than checks made payable to individuals. Currently, after a bank customer deposits checks with his or her bank, the bank typically transports the check from the branch or automated teller machine, where it was deposited to a central operations center. The checks are then sent to a first intermediary—such as a Federal Reserve Bank, a correspondent bank or a clearinghouse—for collection. Next, the checks are delivered to the bank on which it is drawn for payment. This procedure requires the transport of the check to its respective destination by air or ground transportation. While some banks have entered into agreements to accept checks electronically, sometimes referred to as “truncated checks,” in view of the large number of banks in the United States, it is practically impossible for a single bank to obtain agreements from all other banks. Consequently, the check clearing process is a time-consuming and labor-intensive process. While there are a number of automated techniques that have been adopted that have increased the speed of the process, including the use of MICR coding, to the extent that other aspects of the process can be automated the efficiency of the transaction would increase.
While the prior art has disclosed a number of techniques to automate transaction handling, there remains a need to increase the efficiency and accuracy of the deposit transaction process.
An object of the present invention is to increase the speed and accuracy of the deposit transactions, and reduce the labor required to perform the transactions. A further object of the invention is to make information relating to the deposit rapidly available in electronic form to both the customer and the bank. Other objects of the invention include reducing transaction costs, making capital available faster and increasing liquidity. A further object of the invention is to capture data from the deposit process than enables both banks and customers to make better decisions regarding their respective business, identify problematic locations in the deposit transaction, identify potential theft, fraud or embezzlement quicker, and identify industry trends.